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Germany

If anybody's interested in the German language, ask away here.

Quote from da_rippa:

Quote:

If someone needs help in German, I would offer my help. Only if it's wanted. It's not my mother language, but I was born, grew up and live in Germany , so I should be able to help you PM me if there is a need...

I personally think, that Spanish is a cool language, I am an idiot not to take the course at school when I had the opportunity (3 years ago, because of lazyness )

Re: German Language

As you can see there are sometimes more than one way to say something.
Either formal or colloquial.

formal = (F)
colloquial (C)
OK?

Thank You
Danke schön (F)
or
Danke (C)

You're Welcome
Bitte schön (F)
or
Bitte (C)

By the way, don't wonder, if someone from Germany, Austria or Switzerland answers
"Please you" , if you say "Thank You", because "bitte" can be also translated into "please" (like "can you help me please")

Good Morning
Guten Morgen

Good Night
Gute Nacht

How are you?
Wie geht es dir? (F)
or
Wie gehts? (C)

I'm good
Mir geht es gut

I'm feeling bad
Ich fühle mich schlecht

I'm happy to hear that
(Es) freut mich, das zu hören.

What are you doing?
Was machst du?

Have fun!
Viel Spaß

Ich hoffe, ich kann euch ein wenig helfen.
I hope I can help you a little bit.

Re: German Language

As da_rippa seems to be busy I will give you a brief explanation of pronounciation and grammar in German:

Pronounciation:
Almost the same like in English. Good, isnt it?

a  like in master (not :apron)
u  like in umbrella (not: university or nutshell)
i  like in teak or wisdom (not: wise)
ä  like in apron
ü  like in myth
ß  its basically an double s, like in miss
th (like in the German word Bibliothek=library)  for pronounciation ignore the h, prounounce it like a normal t like in water

Originally I planned to write the Grammar part on my own but then I found useful links so Ill let you read what pros have done:

Re: German Language

Hehe, nice topic
German grammar is indeed very complex. Sometimes even Germans make mistakes because they're not sure about certain aspects (casus, tempus etc.). In certain dialects (like the one spoken in Berlin) people often use dative for accusative which sounds quite funny to non-Berliners
German should be rather easy to learn for English-speakers or people from Scandinavia (exept Finland) since these languages are all related to each other. Just remove the romanic/latin words from English and go back a thousand years and the two languages will sound surprisingly similar. The only problem is really the grammar, since it's a highly "inflected Language" just like modern Icelandic or Old English. Different endings for each gender, words being torn apart in a sentence, you continue the list

(1) You wrote "ist ein Mord für mich" - you can say that but it's kinda akward so I changed it to the adverb.

Great, at least few words are written the right way. Thanks, Miso. It's somehow hard to write all the "sch", when we have transformed in a single "". Now I'll know at least that much.
Can't wait for someone to post a conspect on how the unique sounds are written.

Originally Posted by asmo

German should be rather easy to learn for English-speakers or people from Scandinavia (exept Finland) since these languages are all related to each other.

Same to latvian. We have adopted many words and almost all the gramar from germans, so we somehow partialy understand german even if we don't know it. Old people still use old words like "ancuk" for "jacket" and others.

Re: German Language

@Predator_U: Oh, that's interesting. Didn't know that the influence was that big. However, I know that Oliver Kahn, the Goalkeeper of Bayern Munich, has a Grandfather from one of the three Baltic countries

Re: German Language

Originally Posted by Predator_U

Same to latvian. We have adopted many words and almost all the gramar from germans, so we somehow partialy understand german even if we don't know it. Old people still use old words like "ancuk" for "jacket" and others.

Oh. That's interesting. I didn't know that they are similar.

I have a grandma originally coming from Lithuania. Well...back then it was part of German...
But I don't know much about the Baltic countries.
So it is a surprise that Latvia is similar to German.